Viotti Prelude to Nigel Clarke

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Playing Viotti's wonderful Stradivari. London 2005 Photo: AP

Viotti as musical director, his ‘bow of cotton’ firmly grasped in his ‘arm of Hercules’. The bow in this picture is not a modern ‘Tourte-model’ but a long earlier type. Perhaps Viotti preferred to not use the Tourtes, with their ‘fini precieux’ for the more risky business of directing. Berlioz recalled Habeneck’s willingness to break his bow in frustration, so perhaps conductors reserved their finer instruments for concertantes.

Nigel Clarke with Hindemith! On the steps of the Conservartoire, Ankara. 2007. Photo: Marius Skaerved